On a frigid Saturday night, the Boston University men’s soccer team defeated the United States Military Academy 1-0 at Nickerson Field to propel itself into the playoff conversation.
The victory propelled The Terriers (7-6-2, 3-3-2 in Patriot League) to fifth place in the league standings, which would clinch them a spot in the Patriot League Tournament were the season to end today. There is still one game left to be played, though, but BU head Neil Roberts was proud of his team’s fight on Saturday.
“It was a big game,” Roberts said. “A lot’s at stake and they’re [Army] doing well. They’re very disciplined, they’re very athletic, they’re very fit so we knew it was going to be a physical game so I think we matched it and did well.”
This physicality manifested itself from the opening minutes, as there were five yellow cards dished out between the two sides.
But in the end, the Terriers stuck with a familiar formula of a Matt Gilbert shutout and an Anthony Viteri goal to lead them to victory.
Roberts did go with a more offensive strategy in this game, employing a two-striker lineup.
“It created more chances,” Roberts said. “They needed a point to lock up a position in the Tournament and we needed three, so we needed to go with two [strikers] because we had to score goals. A draw doesn’t do us any good and keeping the game close doesn’t help us so we needed to win.”
Saturday’s victory over the Black Knights (8-6-2, 4-3-1 Patriot League) was the fourth in BU’s last five matches, success that Roberts credits to his defense’s strong play.
“That’s the key,” Roberts said. “When things weren’t going well for us [defensively] we were playing OK. That’s what we were hoping to do for most of the year.”
On senior night, the Terriers’ leaders did not disappoint.
“One thing that we did today is actually motivate the [senior class] and let them know that this could be the last time they are playing in a competitive game,” junior midfielder Viteri said.
Gilbert preserved the shutout, midfielder David Asbjornsson was steady and rarely made mistakes and forward Felix De Bona was a constant presence around the Army goal.
Viteri spoke of an interesting motivational technique that the team used on Saturday to get big results from the team.
“If we didn’t win tonight we wouldn’t have had a chance next game to make the tournament so around the locker room we posted a picture of them when they were young,” Viteri said. “We tried to find that passion that they had when they were a little kid.”
In the fourth minute, senior forward Mark Wadid dribbled past two Army defenders on the right side and cut in before delivering a pass to freshman forward Matt McDonnell, whose one-touch effort went just wide.
Although they outshot the Black Knights 11-4 in the opening half, the Terriers’ most decisive shot came after halftime.
At the 49-minute mark, Viteri’s career-high seventh goal developed quickly through the Army midfield.
Junior midfielder David Amirani cleverly dribbled through and sent a through ball to Viteri, who sent it by Army goalkeeper Justin Stoll to clinch the 1-0 victory for BU.
When asked how the team honored the seniors on Saturday night, Viteri had a simple response.
“We got the W. That’s how we honored them,” Viteri said.
